2. amps-preamps
  3. 178295-175370

Recommend me a Class A Integrated Amp (or sound like Class A amp)

I have been rocking a Cabasse Riga setup with a Sony TA-A1ES (a heavily biased Class A design outputting first 15 watts as Class A). I absolutely love the clarity and natural sound of it. I’ve decided to keep to Class A to upgrade if possible because the Riga does not need a lot of juice to drive.

Accuphase Class As are eye-watering expensive in my country, but thankfully Esoteric prices their Class A F-03A at much more reasonable $8600 USD. Luxman unfortunately has stopped producing Class As, so they are out of equation and besides strangely they are more expensive than Esoteric in my country. Pass Labs, well, way out of my budget.

So, for around $8600 USD or less what are my other options if I want a similar sound to Class A without going down the tube route?

I’ve heard the new HifiRose RA180 sounds quite class A like. And I think the Yamaha AS series sound quite close as well. Any more options should I consider? The pricing of other brands should be similar to US.

128x128auroravengeance

Showing 2 responses by yyzsantabarbara

yyzsantabarbara
4,562 posts
 

The KRELL K-300i is excellent. The internal DAC in the unit is worth the $1K because of the HDMI input alone. However, a few dedicated DACs under $1700 were preferred by me over the KRELL's internal DAC.

Since the KRELL is a warm and very smooth sounding unit. I preferred a DAC that was transparent. Maybe not for everyone but transparent DACs are not expensive these days. I am referring to great measuring DACs like a Topping D90LE | Benchmark DAC3B | Matrix Audio. 

Saying all of that in the final few months I had the K-300i I used the unit with the built-in network streamer (ROON READY) and the internal DAC. So convenient and very good sound. 

yyzsantabarbara
4,562 posts
 

+1 on CODA and Krell integrateds

I have had the CODA 07x premap with the KRELL 175XD and put them in my small room with my ancient KEF LS50;s and the new KEF KC62 sub. This is a killer combo. The 07x preamp’s XLR out into my sub (using a Cardas adapter to RCA) is the best sounding sub setup I have heard in my home.

I mention this because the OP is looking at the Yamaha NS3000. I am down to the NS5000 or KEF Blade 2 META for a bigger room. I have demoed the NS5000. The 07x preamp with the NS3000 and a sub would be amazing. My Benchmark LA4 preamp is not as good as the CODA 07x when considering sub setup. Likely due to XLR vs RCA.

I have owned the CODA CSiB (circ Sept 2019) and the KRELL K-300i and the combo listed above is much better than both of these integrated amps (and more costly).

 

 

 

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